Facilities raise insects for research, testing, and other scientific purposes. Once the insects reach certain developmental stages, such facilities may wish to categorize the insects based on common characteristics (e.g., gender, size, fitness, etc.) For example, various techniques for the control of mosquito populations involve the generation of sterile male insects for release into the wild for mating with local females. Such techniques were developed as a solution for populations suffering from mosquito-vectored diseases. As part of this development, it is important to assess the relative fitness of the male mosquitoes raised in the facility and their ability to compete with the local wild male population.
Sensors and other devices may be used to access the characteristics of mosquitoes and other insects raised in a facility for sorting the insects into categories However, the presence of a large quantity of insects can prevent the sensors from analyzing the insects individually and determining an appropriate category for each insect. Similarly, physically separating the insects by category can be extremely difficult.